Anglo-Dutch Wars

The Anglo-Dutch Wars was a series of wars fought between England and the United Provinces during the second half of the 17th century. The wars were fought primarily at sea, and they served as a competition between Europe's two most powerful Protestant seafaring powers, both of which fought over control of vital trade routes. The wars would ultimately be decided not by a naval battle, but by the 1688 Glorious Revolution, during which William of Orange, a Dutchman, acceded to the throne of England.

Background
In the second half of the 17th century, England and the Netherlands came into conflict with each other over the possession of the seas. The United Provinces had won their freedom after 80 years of struggle against Spain during the Dutch Revolt, emerging as a major mercantile economy and colonial power. England's rise as a maritime nation dated from the 16th century, when its fleet had faced down the Spanish challenge during the Anglo-Spanish War. However, that rise had been interrupted by domestic difficulties, which ultimately plunged the country into the English Civil War. Now that peace had returned to England, the Commonwealth was looking to a future it saw as being shaped overseas in a growign empire. War with the Netherlands seemed inevitable, though it was a policy that England was soon to regret.

Wars
The Commonwealth of England's "General at Sea", George Monck, declared that the Dutch had too many trade routes, and the English were resolved to take them from the Dutch. Under the Navigation Act of 1651, imports to England ahd to be shipped direct from their source nation - vessels from a third nation could not be involved. The legislation implied by "third nation" undoubtedly referred to the Dutch, who had dominated long-distance trade with Europe. England sought to prevent the Dutch from controlling world trade, leading to war.

Both sides were caught out when the fighting started, however. On 29 May 1652, Lieutenant-Admiral Maarten Tromp's Dutch fleet and that of England's Robert Blake chanced upon each other in the English Channel at the Battle of Goodwin sands, which lasted five hours and left both fleets badly damaged. It also marked a point of no return, as a series of naval wars was ignited. George Ayscue's English fleet attacked a convoy of Dutch merchantmen that August, taking a battering from Michiel de Ruyter's warships for its efforts. Blake took revenge in October at the Battle of Kentish Knock, during which it defeated the Dutch. Differences between Dutch commanders over tactics weakened their overall strategy; Witte de With wanted to take the battle to the English, while Ruyter favored a more cautious, defensive approach. With their bigger ships and superior cannon, the English won decisively, while the Dutch fled in disarray. In the long term, the Dutch were to benefit from this bruising, building bigger and more powerful ships. The English became complacent, and they sent additional vessels to reinforce the Mediterranean fleet. This led to the Battle of Dungeness, in which the Dutch defeated the English; Blake attempted to resign, but his resignation was not approved. After the English defeat at Leghorn, it became clear that something had to be done. The English Admiralty issued fresh "Instructions", which transformed battles from a series of boarding actions into an orderly battle. The English fleet would file past the enemy, firing as it went, and each squadron would consist of "ships of the line" instead of stray ships. At the Battle of Portland in March 1653, Blake's fleet defeated a Dutch fleet of similar size, forcing it out of the English Channel. After another defeat off Suffolk at the Battle of the Gabbard, the Dutch were confined to their home ports. Their country under siege, they tried to break out in August, only to be beaten back. The English were also forced to withdraw, and the hostilities ended in mutual exhaustion.

After the restoration of the monarchy in England, King Charles II of England sought to interfere in the politics of the Dutch Republic and continue the competition for trade. In 1665, the two nations went to war once more. The Dutch built up their fleet between the two wars, but their defeat at the Battle of Lowestoft on 13 June 1665 cost them 17 ships and 2,000 men, with a further 2,500 men being captured. The English casualties were negligible, but they were unable to build on the victory. The Dutch were able to recover and triumph at the Four Days Battle off Kent from 1-4 June 1666. A year later, Ruyter led a task force into the Thames Estuary and up the Medway to the Chatham Royal Dockyard, burning the buildings and sinking several ships. The Dutch also towed away the HMS Unity (reclaiming the formerly Dutch vessel) and the English royal flagship, the Royal Charles, the final straw for an enemy reeling from the impact of both the Great Plague of 1665-1666 and the Great Fire of London of 1666. A desperate England agreed to peace terms under the Treaty of Breda, under which it acquired New Netherlands in North America, but was forced to give way on the Navigation Act.

England no longer had the stamina for further fighting, but Charles committed his support to King Louis XIV of France during the Franco-Dutch War, which started in 1672. He was compelled to help his ally of France, and he sent his fleet to assist the French as their advance into the Netherlands was slowed by the opening of the dykes. The worst fears of the english public were confirmed when the dutch staved off their fleet's attack, and a sudden change in the wind averted a shattering defeat by the Dutch at the Battle of Solebay on 7 June 1672. However, divisions between the French and English navies led to crushing defeats at Schooneveld and Texel in June and August 1673, respectively, and Charles II was forced to sue for peace.

Aftermath
The Dutch and French remained at war after Charles II retired from the conflict in 1674, and further battles occurred both on land and at sea. Ruyter died in 1674 at the Battle of Augusta, though his fleet was victorious. By 1678, the Dutch had forced King Louis XIV to give up his idea of conquering their country. It would not bee too long before England had a Dutchman as its ruler. William of Orange was called to take the place of the Catholic Stuart king, James II of England, in 1688. The Glorious Revolution was not welcomed quite so eagerly by Irish Catholics, many of whom flocked to James' banner during the Williamite War in Ireland. However, it brought almost a century of peace with the Netherlands before a fourth war between the countries flared up in 1780 during the American Revolutionary War. Again, trade was the underlying issue, as well as Dutch support for the American rebels. Now, naval combat became its own style of war, not just a continuation of land combat by other means.